Save 75% your first 30 days with the purchase of Equifax Complete™ Premier

$4.95 for the first 30 days, then $19.95 per month thereafter. You may cancel at any time; however, we do not provide partial month refunds.4

¹The credit scores provided under the offers described here use the Equifax Credit Score, which is a proprietary credit model developed by Equifax. The Equifax Credit Score and 3-Bureau scores are each based on the Equifax Credit Score model, but calculated using the information in your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit files. The Equifax Credit Score is intended for your own educational use. It is also commercially available to third parties along with numerous other credit scores and models in the marketplace. Please keep in mind third parties are likely to use a different score when evaluating your creditworthiness. Also, third parties will take into consideration items other than your credit score or information found in your credit file, such as your income.

²The Automatic Fraud Alert feature is made available to consumers by Equifax Information Services LLC and fulfilled on its behalf by Equifax Consumer Services LLC.

³Equifax Credit Report Control™ is only available while you have a current subscription to Equifax Complete Premier. Locking your credit file with Equifax Credit Report Control will prevent access to your Equifax credit file by certain third parties, such as credit grantors or other companies and agencies. Credit Report Control will not prevent access to your credit file at any other credit reporting agency, and will not prevent access to your Equifax credit file by companies like Equifax Personal Solutions which provide you with access to your credit report or credit score or monitor your credit file; Federal, state and local government agencies; companies reviewing your application for employment; companies that have a current account or relationship with you, and collection agencies acting on behalf of those whom you owe; for fraud detection and prevention purposes; and companies that wish to make pre-approved offers of credit or insurance to you. To opt out of such pre-approved offers, visit www.optoutprescreen.com/.

4We will require you to provide your payment information when you sign up and we will immediately charge your card $4.95. After that, we will charge the card $19.95 for each month you continue your subscription. You may cancel at any time; however, we do not provide partial month refunds.

How to Pay Off Debt Faster and Prioritize Your Debt Did you join David Bach last month in his Facebook Live Chat? David shared some great advice about how to become “Debt Free for Life,” how to pay off debt faster, and how to prioritize…

How to Pay Off Debt Faster and Prioritize Your Debt

Did you join David Bach last month in his Facebook Live Chat?

David shared some great advice about how to become “Debt Free for Life,” how to pay off debt faster, and how to prioritize your debt.

Don’t miss the next Live Chat, this Thursday, with TaxMama Eva Rosenberg. She can answer all your questions about filing your 2010 taxes. Sign up now on the Equifax Facebook Fan Page.

Here are some questions fans asked David and how he answered them:

Shelby asked:
Could you tell me if it is better to pay additional monthly payments toward your mortgage principal or pay any additional payments in one lump sum? Currently I pay an additional monthly amount and then another lump payment with my Dec. payment. Is it better to divide this lump sum into 12 months and pay the additional monthly instead of yearly? I would really appreciate your response.

David answered:
Shelby, if you pay it monthly, you will reduce the principal faster. But truthfully I don’t think it matters that much. What matters is that you simply make extra payments on your mortgage. I personally make extra payments each month, and then based on my income I make extra payments a few times a year. The most important thing when you prepay a mortgage is making sure that the money is credited by the bank against the principal. It’s amazing but true that banks will often take the extra payments and hold on to them in an account and not pay you interest or pay down the mortgage until you ask! It’s happened to me, and to my readers. So watch extra payments like a hawk.

Regina asked:
Do I pay my student loan off before I start paying off $35,000.00 in credit card bills?

David answered:
Regina, I would definitely be paying off my credit card debt before my student loans. The interest rate is more than likely much higher on the credit cards than the student loans. The one exception to this rule is if you plan to go bankrupt. Credit cards can be walked away from in bankruptcy, and student loans can’t.

Angie asked:
Is it better to pay off your house or save the money? I am leaning toward paying off the house. It is the last thing I owe money on. I could pay it off in about 4 years . . . $87,000 . . . What do you think?

David answered:
Angie, I would have at least six months of emergency expenses set aside, and then I would pay off your mortgage. You’ll love being debt-free. The one thing is, however, I want you to also max out your retirement account at work if you have one, or at least max out a deductible IRA each year. So max out those retirement accounts and then make the extra payments on the mortgage.

1 comment

I have balances on three credit cards that are all being paid off with debt-wise over the next 12 months: 1.) The first is close to its limit, but, I'm paying 0% interest for another 11 months. 2.) On the second I'm paying 15% interest and it's current balance is about half it's limit. 3.) The third was closed at my request and has about 1/3rd of it's original available credit remaining that I continue to make payments on every month. Unfortunately, it carries the highest interest at 20%.If my goal is to raise my credit score as much as possible in the next three months, which card should I target? As I've said, cards #2 & #3 both have balances at 50% or less than their respective limits. Card #1 is enjoying 0% interest for 11 more months. It would seem clear that I should target card #3…But I've heard that having such a high utilization of credit on ANY ONE CARD (card #1) can be deleterious. Is this true? Or does the total utilization of all revolving credit remain the overriding factor in that portion of the score? Thank you!

Leave a Comment

We welcome your interest and participation on this forum, but be aware that comments will be published at Equifax's sole discretion.
Please don't use this blog to submit questions or concerns about your Equifax credit report or raise customer service issues.
Instead, you should contact Equifax directly for all such matters and any attempts to do so in this forum will be promptly re-directed.

Some other factors to consider when commenting:

Registration and privacy. While no registration is required to visit our forum, participants wishing to post a message must register by creating an account. All personal information provided by forum members incident to registration is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

All comments are anonymous. We'll delete your name, e-mail address, and any other identifying information, including details about your investments.

We can't post or respond to every comment - As much as we'd like to, we can't post every comment, nor can we guarantee that we will respond to each individual message. All questions or comments about your Equifax credit report or similar customer service issues should be handled by contacting Equifax directly.

Don't offer specific legal, tax or financial advice. All of the materials on this Site are for information, education, and noncommercial purposes only and this forum is not intended as a means of expressing views or ideas regarding any specific legal, tax, or investment advice. While offering general rules of thumb is both permitted and encouraged, recommending specific ideas or strategies regarding investments, taxes, and related matters is prohibited.

Credit Repair. This blog is not intended as a venue for the discussion or exchange of ideas regarding credit repair or other strategies intended to assist visitors and community members improve or otherwise modify their credit histories, ratings or scores.

Stay on topic. Your comment should be concise and pertain to the specific post in question.

Be respectful of the community. The use of profanity, offensive language, spam, and personal attacks will not be tolerated and egregious or repeat offenders will be banned from future participation. We encourage disagreement and healthy debate, but please refrain from personal attacks on our WordPresss and contributors.

Finally: Participation in this forum may be terminated by Equifax immediately and without notice for failure to comply with any guidelines or Terms of Use. As such, you should familiarize yourself with all pertinent requirements prior to submitting any response through the blog or otherwise. All opinions expressed in this forum are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and don't necessarily represent the views of Equifax or its management.

Equifax maintains this interactive forum for education and information purposes in order to allow individuals to share their relevant knowledge and opinions with other members and visitors. We encourage you to participate in discussions about personal finance issues and other topics of interest to this community, but please read our
commenting guidelines first.
Equifax reserves the right to monitor postings to the forum and comments will be published at our discretion. Do you have questions or comments about your Equifax credit report or customer-service issues regarding an Equifax product? If so, please
contact Equifax directly.
All opinions and information expressed or shared in blog comments are solely those of the person submitting the comments, and don't necessarily represent the views of Equifax or its management.